Growing up as a child, I recall the time when my parents decided they were tired of instant coffee and switched to drip.
Every year or so they had to replace that stupid machine, sometimes twice a year. Every time the latest machine went belly up they would gripe about how cheap things were made. Even the expensive coffee makers would die in a short span of time!
When I reached adulthood, I ended up marrying an inveterate coffee drinker. He would drink anything, so long as it was coffee.
For the first few years coffee was brewed in an electric percolator - I guess it tasted alright for he drank it - I wasn't in a coffee phase so I never tasted it!
Eventually we moved on to a "real" drip coffee maker. Determined to ensure my husband (and myself by that time) had good coffee I would clean the machine out with vinegar - only to have the machine die the next time we used it.
I thought it was a fluke, so we purchased another. I didn't clean this one for almost a year, but when I did - alas, I killed it too.
When I stopped trying to clean the machines, they would last a long time before eventually going to coffeemaker heaven, but go they all eventually did.
Sometime after moving out on my own I realised that I didn't really drink enough coffee to justify a coffeemaker taking up space on my counter, yet I did not want to have to keep instant on hand. For a time I attempted to find a consumer solution - single cup coffee makers, smaller coffee makers, coffee makers on clearance - all of these solutions still left some sort of monstrosity sitting on my precious countertop for the rare times when I wanted a good cup of coffee.
Currently I have a percolator pot, but instead of perking the coffee I generally boil the water in my teapot and pour it in to get the equivalent of a drip. It isn't bad, but still I have this pot taking up space in my cabinets for the rare time I get the taste for coffee.
I have heard that a French Press would be a good space-saving solution for those occasional cups of coffee, but there you go with the consumer bit. Always we seem to think (myself included) that we have to buy something to solve a problem. I honestly don't want to buy anything unless I have to, and considering that this metal stovetop percolator has no moving parts to die, I guess I'm stuck unless someone has a better idea.
The thing is, I don't even know if I would like the coffee that a French Press makes. Why spend that money on something that I don't know if I will like? It would definitely take up less space, and I could put my percolator on Freecycle. Hey, perhaps I could offer a trade in a classified - stovetop percolator for a french press? Then I could try it without having to "buy" it in the traditional sense.
Does anyone have any thoughts on living without a traditional coffee maker? What do you do in a minimalist kitchen when you want the occasional cuppa joe?
Update: I posted a "want to trade" ad on my local isp's classifieds in hopes of exchanging this percolator for a french press. Hopefully someone out there has a french press they are willing to trade. If so, I have reached a non-consumer solution to the issue (fingers crossed.)